As the talent landscape continues its challenges, interesting benefit discussions are arising with today's coveted millennials that should cause HR leaders and mobility managers to pause.

Much has been written and said about the generational differences of the new workforce. Forward-thinking talent acquisition professionals are addressing the new desires for debt relief and other quality of life benefits, like dog insurance to help attract talent.

A colleague of mine, Chris Pardo, recently posted a great example of this here. It discusses how millennials' buying habits, such as buying a home, are being shaped by things like pet ownership.

This is interesting food for thought as strategic HR leaders recalibrate what the talent market desires and requires to be competitive in the near-future.

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Remember when companies offered college graduates a job with a few weeks of vacation, medical and dental insurance and a 401(k) plan? Well, those days are gone.
The millennials streaming into the workforce today, at companies both big and small, are expecting and getting benefits that baby boomers wouldn't even have thought of — or dared ask for. Among them: pet insurance, paid volunteering opportunities and student-loan repayment help, just to name a few.
What's more surprising is that millennials are even willing to take less pay for these benefits — a plus that puts many small businesses having difficulty making payroll each month back in the game to compete for great talent. According to the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, 7 percent of the 2030 small businesses surveyed cite cost of labor as a critical issue.